"Crippled America" How to make America great again

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This book is dedicated to my parents, Mary and Fred C. Trump, and my brothers and sisters—Maryanne,
Robert, Elizabeth, and Fred. Also, my wonderful wife, Melania, and my incredibly supportive children, Don
Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron.
And importantly, to the people who are ready to Make America Great Again!

CONTENTS
Preface: You Gotta Believe
1. Winning Again
2. Our “Unbiased” Political Media
3. Immigration: Good Walls Make Good Neighbors
4. Foreign Policy: Fighting for Peace
5. Education: A Failing Grade
6. The Energy Debate: A Lot of Hot Air
7. Health Care Is Making Us All Sick
8. It’s Still the Economy, Stupid
9. Nice Guys Can Finish First
10. Lucky to Be an American
11. The Right to Bear Arms
12. Our Infrastructure Is Crumbling
13. Values
14. A New Game in Town
15. Teaching the Media Dollars and Sense
16. A Tax Code That Works
17. Making America Great Again
Photographs
Acknowledgments
My Personal Financials
About the Author

PREFACE
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE
SOME READERS MAY BE wondering why the picture we used on the cover of this book is
so angry and so mean looking. I had some beautiful pictures taken in which I
had a big smile on my face. I looked happy, I looked content, I looked like a
very nice person, which in theory I am. My family loved those pictures and
wanted me to use one of them. The photographer did a great job. But I decided
it wasn’t appropriate. In this book we’re talking about Crippled America—that’s
a tough title. Unfortunately, there’s very little that’s nice about it. Hence, the
picture on the cover.
So I wanted a picture where I wasn’t happy, a picture that reflected the
anger and unhappiness that I feel, rather than joy. There’s nothing to be joyful
about. Because we are not in a joyous situation right now. We’re in a situation
where we have to go back to work to make America great again. All of us. That’s
why I’ve written this book. People say that I have self-confidence. Who knows?
When I began speaking out, I was a realist. I knew the relentless and
incompetent naysayers of the status quo would anxiously line up against me,
and they have:
The politicians who talk a great game in campaigns—and play like total
losers when they try to actually govern because they can’t govern; they don’t
know how to govern.
The lobbyists and special interests with their hands in our pockets on behalf
of their clients or others.
The members of the media who are so far lost when it comes to being fair
that they have no concept of the difference between “fact” and “opinion.”
The illegal immigrants who have taken jobs that should go to people here
legally, while over 20 percent of Americans are currently unemployed or

underemployed. Believe me, they’re all over the place. I see them. I talk to
them. I hug them. I hold them. They are all over the place.
Congress, which has been deadlocked for years and virtually unable to deal
with any of our most pressing domestic problems, or even the most basic ones,
such as passing a budget. Think of it: a little thing like passing the budget. They
don’t even have a clue.
Meanwhile, the bedrock of this country—the middle class—and those 45
million Americans stuck in poverty have seen their incomes decline over the
past 20 years. Understandably, their disenchantment and frustration at what’s
happening grows every day, and it gets worse and worse and worse.
And even our lawyers and judges, the reflective “wise men,” have been
stepping all over the US Constitution, the bulwark of our democracy. They
have recklessly appointed themselves to be policy makers, because our actual
elected officials are paralyzed by partisanship. They can’t move; they can’t act.
They are totally impotent.
As for the presidency and the executive branch, the incompetence is beyond
belief.
As I write this, Russian president Vladimir Putin is totally outmaneuvering
our president by putting together a coalition in Syria that will make Putin the
only effective leader in the world. He and his allies—most notably Iran—have
positioned themselves exactly where President Obama and our military have
failed miserably for years. They are total failures. They are not leaders. We are
no longer a leader. Putin has become the leader, and it’s an embarrassment to
our country.
We’ve wasted literally trillions of dollars in the Middle East, with virtually
nothing to show for it except for alienating our best ally, Israel. To make
matters worse, we’ve negotiated a worthless and costly nuclear treaty with Iran
(now Russia’s best friend) on the supposition that it will lead to greater
harmony and world peace, which it won’t. It will lead to just the opposite.
The idea of American Greatness, of our country as the leader of the free and
unfree world, has vanished.
Despite all of these challenges—and actually because of the challenges—I
decided to do something about it. I couldn’t stand to see what was happening to
our great country. This mess calls for leadership in the worst way. It needs
someone with common sense and business acumen, someone who can truly
lead America back to what has made us great in the past.

We need someone with a proven track record in business who understands
greatness, someone who can rally us to the standard of excellence we once
epitomized and explain what needs to be done.
When I started speaking out, I had no idea what the reaction would be. I
know I’m a great builder, I’ve built buildings all over the world. I’ve had
tremendous success. But I hadn’t fully exposed my political thoughts and ideas
to restore America’s greatness.
I also knew that the Trump brand is one of the world’s great icons of quality
and excellence. Everybody talks about it. Everybody knows about it. It’s very
very special. I’m very proud of it. Our buildings and resorts now stand very
proudly (and beautifully) all over the United States and in many other
countries.
I started with the issue of illegal immigration, and proposed building a major
wall that would be very high and completely impervious to the flood of
immigrants who we don’t want or need here illegally. We love people coming in,
but not when it’s done illegally.
Suddenly, Americans started to wake up to what was going on with regard to
illegal immigration. Despite the large number of candidates who were running
for the Republican nomination, what I was saying started to really hit home
with people, and everybody picked it up and they picked it up gladly.
I started drawing crowds so large that we had to move our rallies into football
stadiums and convention centers. The first national debate drew 24 million
viewers, which set a record for cable television. Despite some of the ridiculous,
antagonistic questions—or maybe because of them—I fought back as I always
do and began to explain my vision. As a result, most people thought I won the
debate.
People were applauding. All of a sudden, people who had never cared about
elections or never voted were rushing to our rallies. The rallies became massive.
The crowds were unbelievable. The enthusiasm was based on pure love and
love of what we were doing.
The media, the politicians, and the so-called leaders of our country reacted
in horror. But I persevered and went directly to the people, because I don’t
need anyone’s financial support, nor do I need anyone’s approval of what I say
or do. I just had to do the right thing. I had to do it. I had no choice. I see
what’s happening to our country; it’s going to hell. I had to do it.
I have now begun to fill in some of the details of my vision. I’ve released a
tax plan that gives the middle class and those with lower incomes a chance to

keep more of what they earn, while restructuring how the richest Americans
will be paying taxes.
I’ve committed to a truly more powerful military, one prepared and equipped
to stand up to any and all of our foes. When we draw a line in the sand, it needs
to mean something to all—especially our enemies.
I’ve introduced a whole new approach to job creation by encouraging
companies to bring more of their jobs and manufacturing back to America
(home where it belongs), along with the trillions of dollars currently being held
in foreign banks overseas. We’re bringing that money back. It’s a massive
amount of money. And guess what? Lots of good things are going to happen.
They’re going to spend that money on roads, on bridges, on companies, on jobs.
It’s going to be amazing.
I’ve explained why Obamacare is a costly, ludicrous solution to our health
care woes and one which must be repealed and replaced with a much better
option. We need to fix the problem by creating competition in the private sector
between insurance companies, and by allowing patients to choose the family
doctors they want. This will be a much better plan, a much less costly plan—
better doctors, better service. It will be something really special. And think of it:
the United States will save a fortune as a country. People will be better served.
A combination that cannot be beat.
Competition is a magic word in education as well. Parents should have the
right to choose the schools where their kids can get the best education. The
weaker schools will be closed, and ineffective teachers will be fired. One-size-
fits-all education—Common Core—is bad. It’s not going to happen. We don’t
want our children to be educated from Washington. We want local eduction.
Education should be locally based.
Domestically, we need to undertake a massive rebuilding of our
infrastructure. Too many bridges have become dangerous, our roads are
decaying and full of potholes, while traffic jams are costing millions in lost
income for drivers who have jobs in congested cities. Public transit is
overcrowded and unreliable and our airports must be rebuilt. You go to
countries like China and many others and you look at their train systems and
their public transport. It’s so much better. We’re like a third-world country.
I could go on and on regarding many of the ideas I’ve written about in this
book, and more that will be forthcoming. But let me add that while my critics
are pushing their policy agendas, the last thing we need are more plans that
evaporate after the elections.

What we need is leadership that can deal with our mess and begin to apply
practical solutions to our problems. My goal is not to design hundreds of pages
of government regulation and red tape like others propose. We need to outline
commonsense policies and then knock some heads together if necessary to
make them work. The fact is we are over-regulated. People can’t move. They’re
stymied. Companies can’t be built. We’re over-regulated.
I know how to deal with complex issues and how to bring together all the
various elements necessary for success. I’ve done it for years and have built a
great company and a massive net worth.
This book is designed to give the reader a better understanding of me and
my ideas for our future. I’m a really nice guy, believe me, I pride myself on
being a nice guy but I’m also passionate and determined to make our country
great again.
It’s time we turn America around from despair and anger to joy and
accomplishment. It can happen, and it will happen.
Our best days still lie ahead. There is so much untapped greatness in our
country. We’re rich in natural resources, and we’re rich in human talent.
Enjoy this book—and together, let’s make America great again!

1
WINNING AGAIN
AMERICA NEEDS TO START winning again.
Nobody likes a loser and nobody likes to be bullied. Yet, here we stand
today, the greatest superpower on Earth, and everyone is eating our lunch.
That’s not winning.
We have a president who tries to get tough and draw a line in the sand, but
when that line gets crossed, there are no repercussions.
And when we try to negotiate with foreign countries? We don’t stand up. We
don’t threaten to walk away. And, more important, we don’t walk away. We
make concession after concession. That’s not winning.
If I ran my business that way, I’d fire myself.
Take one of the worst agreements in our history—the nuclear “treaty” with
Iran—which John Kerry negotiated and President Obama rammed through and
around Congress. (Or, rather, he convinced his party to support it and filibuster
any debate or vote on it.) This is probably the most important treaty of our time,
and our very stupid leaders in Washington, DC, couldn’t even bring themselves
to hold a discussion and vote on it.
Ronald Reagan said, “Trust but verify”—but in this case we aren’t following
either piece of advice. How can we trust a man like the Ayatollah Khamenei?
Just a month before we approved the treaty, he reiterated that his country was
pledged to destroy and eliminate Israel, our most important ally and longtime
partner in preserving some semblance of stability in the region. And as for
verification, we don’t even know what side-deals the International Atomic
Energy Agency has struck with Iran. Or if we do know, they haven’t been made
public.

That’s not winning—that’s criminal negligence, in my view.
Then when every Senate Republican criticized this deal (and some of the
Democrats did as well), the president compared his critics to our adversaries.
In other words, he sells out his friends and allies, and then defends his treaty
by comparing his critics to our enemies.
That’s what we call successful diplomacy?
Now we’re going to open the gates to refugees from places like Syria, which
is like extending a personal invitation to ISIS members to come live here and try
to destroy our country from within.
This is America today, the shining city on a hill, which other countries used
to admire and try to be like.
So what can be done about it? How do we start winning again?
To start with, we need a government that is committed to winning and has
experience in winning. This book is about how we do that.
In early September 2015, I spoke at a major rally in Washington, DC. I told
them that we need a military that will be so strong that we won’t have to use it.
And then I asked, “Are you listening, President Obama?” Almost everyone in
the crowd cheered, but I understand why some of them were skeptical.
Americans are used to hearing the same old promises from the same tired
politicians who never produce any results, let alone any victories. I should
know. For years I gave money—lots of money—to candidates from both parties
who made personal pleas for my support for their campaigns. They promised to
change things with new ideas and bring government back to its original, more
limited purpose of protecting our country and putting our people first.
Candidate after candidate made all kinds of pledges like this, and very little,
if anything, was done. How many of those problems have been solved? Nothing
seemed to move forward in Washington.
Look at Congress, which has an understandably negative reputation among
Americans.
And why not? They do nothing.
They can’t even pass an annual budget. They constantly bicker, which means
that they just throw all our problems and our huge debt on to our children and
possibly our grandchildren.
This has to stop.

Finally, I realized that America doesn’t need more “all-talk, no-action”
politicians running things. It needs smart businesspeople who understand how
to manage. We don’t need more political rhetoric—we need more common
sense. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”—but if it is broke, let’s stop talking about it
and fix it.
I know how to fix it.
A lot of people were encouraging me to speak out, and I realized that with
my well-known success story and record of building residential and office
buildings and developing public spaces—all the while accumulating personal
wealth—I could inspire people to help create the most massive turnaround in
American history.
Of course, there were doubters. Between journalists who sell newspapers by
creating controversy, and established politicians eager to preserve the status
quo that in turn preserves their jobs, there were many “experts” predicting my
demise. They’ve been reading the “polls.” They’ve been listening to all the
lobbyists and special interests saying “Trump is a threat to our well-being.”
They’ve even been saying I was a bully or that I was prejudiced or that I hated
women or hated Hispanics. Some of them even said—and this is the cardinal
sin in politics—I was willing to take on even the richest people in America with
all their tax benefits.
I have proven everybody wrong.
EVERYBODY!
Suddenly, those same newspapers and “experts” were only talking about my
ideas. And even as I’ve had to respond to some of the toughest and dumbest
questions from supposedly nonpartisan journalists, people continue to listen to
me and support my ideas—and guess what? Women are flocking to my message
because they’re just as tired as men are about how little is being accomplished
in Washington.
Likewise, Hispanics are climbing on board because they’ve heard—from
Hispanic employees who’ve actually worked for me and know me as a boss and
leader—that Donald Trump builds businesses.
Donald Trump builds buildings.
Donald Trump develops magnificent golf courses.
Donald Trump makes investments that create jobs.
And Donald Trump creates jobs for legal immigrants and all Americans.
Even the most jaded journalists are realizing that Donald Trump is for real
and that the people are responding to someone who is completely different

from every other politician.
No one is paying me to say these things. I am paying my own way, and I’m
not beholden to any special interests and lobbyists.
I’m not playing by the usual status-quo rules.
I’m not a politician taking polls to see what I should “believe” or be saying.
I am telling it like it is and going to the heart of what I think will make
America great again.
I’m not a diplomat who wants everybody else to be happy. I’m a practical
businessman who has learned that when you believe in something, you never
stop, you never quit, and if you get knocked down, you climb right back up and
keep fighting until you win. That’s been my strategy all my life, and I’ve been
very successful following it.
Winning matters. Being the best matters.
I’m going to keep fighting for our country until our country is great again.
Too many people think the American dream is dead, but we can bring it
back bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. But we must start now.
We need to ensure America starts winning once again.

2
OUR “UNBIASED” POLITICAL MEDIA
FOR A LONG TIME I’ve been the man the media loves to hate.
It hasn’t taken me long to learn how truly dishonest the political media can
be. At the first Republican debate, Fox journalist Megyn Kelly was clearly out
to get me. And of course, at the second debate, virtually everyone was attacking
me because most of their poll numbers were sinking while mine were surging.
I’m perhaps a controversial person. I say what’s on my mind. I don’t wait to
hear what a pollster has to say because I don’t use pollsters. The media loves
my candor. They know I’m not going to dodge or ignore their questions. I have
no problem telling it like it is. These presidential debates would normally have
attracted a couple million viewers, but the first night we had 24 million tune in,
and the second debate drew a similar number. These were the largest
audiences in Fox News’ and CNN’s history—bigger than the NBA Finals, the
World Series, and most NFL telecasts.
Why do you think people tuned in? To hear the nasty questions? To watch a
bunch of politicians trying to pretend they are outsiders (like I truly am) so they
can be more successful? The fact is I give people what they need and deserve to
hear—exactly what they don’t get from politicians—and that is The Truth. Our
country is a mess right now and we don’t have time to pretend otherwise. We
don’t have time to waste on being politically correct.
You listen to the politicians and it’s as if they are speaking from a script titled
“How Boring Can I Possibly Be?” Watching some of these people being
interviewed is about as exciting as watching paint dry. They’re so afraid of
tripping on their own words, terrified that they’re going to say something
unscripted and go off message—that’s the phrase they use, “go off message”—

that they are verbally paralyzed. They’ll do anything they can to avoid answering
a question—and the media plays the game with them.
The object of this game is to appear thoughtful while still looking like a
regular guy (or gal) who would be fun to have a beer with. The pollsters tell
them how to be everything to everybody without alienating anyone. These same
politicians who boldly promise they are going to stand up to our enemies won’t
even give direct answers to reporters. I don’t play that game, because I’m a very
successful businessman and my mind-set is that this country needs to bring
itself back from the depths of all our problems and the $19 trillion we owe.
At the first debate, I responded to Megyn Kelly’s adversarial question by
telling her, “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.
I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t frankly have time for total
political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time
either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China.
We lose to Mexico both in trade and at the border. We lose to Russia and Iran
and Saudi Arabia.”
I’m not bragging when I say that I’m a winner. I have experience in winning.
That’s what we call leadership. That means that people will follow me and be
inspired by what I do. How do I know? I’ve been a leader my whole life.
Thousands of my employees know that I’ll deliver and help them deliver.
Sometimes I can be self-effacing, injecting a little humor, having some fun, and
kidding around. We have a good time. What I say is what I say, and everyone
that knows me really appreciates it.
With the problems we’re facing, these debates have become “Trump versus
The Others.” The attacks are coming at me from all directions, because they all
know I am the only one talking about really changing this country and making
America great again. The moderators read some quote of mine (or misinterpret
a quote of mine) and then ask someone else to comment. Do I have the right
temperament? Would I run the country like a business? When did I “actually
become a Republican?” These exchanges make great TV. Sadly, they’re almost
like watching a sporting event.
And guess what? Few, if any, of these questions get to the heart of what is
wrong with our country and what really matters to Americans. It’s all very
personal, because politicians (and their journalist cronies) know that the public
doesn’t want to hear the details of our nuclear sellout to Iran or what we’re
going to do about all the federal red ink bleeding the American taxpayer dry
these days. The personal exchanges between me and the others become the big

story of the debate and the focus of news coverage for weeks. You’d like to
think that Fox News and CNN could do better. For the record, I think CNN
and Fox treated me badly. Still, you’d think a major news network would take
their responsibilities more seriously and use these debates to help the public
determine who has the best plan to make our country great again.
But they missed that opportunity.
The whole debate format has worked out fine for me. The American people
are smart and figured out pretty quickly what the real motives are for turning up
the personal attacks against me. And I get more minutes, more front-page
coverage, more requests for interviews than anyone else—and most important
for America—the opportunity to speak directly to the people.
There are many reporters whom I have a lot of respect for, especially in the
financial media. When the financial journalists interview you they know what
they’re doing, and they ask direct questions that can provide important
information to their viewers. There’s money at stake and they don’t play the
same silly “gotcha” games as the political media do. They can’t afford to.
I don’t mind being attacked. I use the media the way the media uses me—to
attract attention. Once I have that attention, it’s up to me to use it to my
advantage. I learned a long time ago that if you’re not afraid to be outspoken,
the media will write about you or beg you to come on their shows. If you do
things a little differently, if you say outrageous things and fight back, they love
you. So sometimes I make outrageous comments and give them what they want
—viewers and readers—in order to make a point. I’m a businessman with a
brand to sell. When was the last time you saw a sign hanging outside a pizzeria
claiming “The fourth best pizza in the world”?! But now I am using those
talents, honed through years of tremendous success, to inspire people to think
that our country can get better and be great again and that we can turn things
around.
The cost of a full-page ad in the New York Times can be more than
$100,000. But when they write a story about one of my deals, it doesn’t cost me
a cent, and I get more important publicity. I have a mutually profitable two-way
relationship with the media—we give each other what we need. And now I am
using that relationship to talk about the future of America.
Many people believe I do well with the press. Maybe I do, sometimes, but
anyone who believes I can use the media is absolutely wrong. Nobody can use
the press. It’s too big, too widespread. For me, it has been absolutely necessary
to try to build relationships with reporters. There are many journalists I respect.

Some of the finest people I know are journalists. They are honest, decent, and
hardworking; they bring honor to their profession. If I do something wrong or
make a mistake, they report it accurately. I’ve got no problem with that. The
mistake bothers me, not the reporting.
But there also are a lot of times I believe that the media is abusive, both to
people like me and to the process. The key word is “accurately.” Like in every
other profession, there are people who are not good. There is no question that
considering all the press I’ve had, both good and bad, I’ve definitely met people
at both the very top as well as the lowest end of the food chain. I mean, the very
bottom: They are horrible human beings, they are dishonest. I’ve seen these so-
called journalists flat-out lie. I say that because incompetence doesn’t begin to
explain the inaccurate stories they have written. There is no other explanation.
The image I created through the media enabled me to build one of the
greatest luxury brands in the world. People buy my apartments, buy my label,
and play on my golf courses, because they know if I put my name on it, it has to
be top quality. Why do you think NBC gave me my own show, The Apprentice?
They did it because I set myself apart to be a target, the big, tough employer.
The result was one of the most successful shows in television history. I’m the
only boss in the world who boosts a person’s future status by firing them.
Sometimes the truth hurts, but sometimes that is the only way to get better.
And a lot of the viewers told me that by watching my show they learned how to
be more effective in their jobs so they wouldn’t get fired.
I don’t mind criticism. People call me thin-skinned, but I have thick skin. I
have a wonderful and beautiful wife. I’ve got billions of dollars. My children are
highly intelligent and accomplished executives who work with me. I’ve got a
pile of potentially huge projects sitting on my desk. I can’t walk into a room or
down a street without people racing toward me and telling me that they are
excited for our country to win again. So criticism doesn’t bother me, and it can’t
hurt me. I’ve had power and I’ve had profits, but now it’s time to help the
people have a voice and to make sure the people are heard. I am doing this to
make our country great again.
Not too long ago, a lot of the pundits kept asking me if I was serious. I
thought they were asking the wrong question. What they should have been
asking was if I was serious about the future of our country. I have never been
more serious about anything in my life.
In the quest for ratings, every show is trying to make news. The problem is
that they aren’t doing their job. They aren’t interested in informing the public.

Instead, they play their own game, the “gotcha” game. As I’ve said, some of the
political media are very dishonest. They don’t care about printing the truth, they
don’t want to repeat my entire remarks, and they don’t want to be bothered
explaining what I meant. They know what I said, they know what I meant, and
they edit it or interpret it to have a different meaning.
I was reminded of this behavior when I announced that I was running for
president on June 16 in New York. I spoke at great length about a lot of
different topics. I listed a lot of the problems we were facing: illegal
immigration, underemployment, a shrinking gross domestic product, an aging
nuclear arsenal, and Islamic terrorism. I went through them all. What did the
media focus on? They concentrated on the fact that I said Mexico was sending
its worst people over our southern border. “They’re sending people that have
lots of problems,” I said. “And they’re bringing those problems to us.”
The next thing you heard was that Trump said all immigrants were criminals.
That wasn’t what I said at all, but it made a better story for the media. It gave
them some headlines. What I said was that among all the illegal immigrants
coming from Mexico were some pretty bad people, some of them are rapists,
some of them are drug dealers, some of them are coming here to live off the
system, and we’d better take immediate and tough measures to close our
borders to “illegals.”
People who know me know I would never insult Hispanics or any group of
people. I’ve done business with many Hispanics. I’ve lived in New York all my
life. I know how wonderful the Latino culture can be. I know the contributions
they make to our country. I’ve employed many hardworking Hispanic people
through the years. I have great respect for Hispanic people, but that’s not what
the media reported.
Here’s what the media reported: TRUMP CALLS ALL IMMIGRANTS CRIMINALS
and TRUMP CALLS ALL MEXICANS RAPISTS!
Completely ridiculous.
One of the problems the political media has with me is that I’m not afraid of
them. Others run around practically begging for attention. I don’t. People
respond to my ideas. These media types sell more magazines when my face is
on the cover, or when I bring a bigger audience to their television show than
they normally attract, and by far. And what’s funny is that it turns out the best
way for them to get that attention is to criticize me.
But the American people are beginning to understand that. They have finally
figured out that a lot of the political media aren’t trying to give the people a fair

representation of the important issues. Instead, they are trying to manipulate
the people—and the election—in favor of the candidates they want to see
elected. These media companies are owned by billionaires. These are smart
people who know which candidates are going to be best for them, and they find
a way to support the person they want.
It would be impossible for me to even estimate how many times I’ve been
interviewed by how many reporters. I couldn’t even tell you how many magazine
covers I’ve been on.
Recently, I was interviewed by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “Best
interview in America,” he called me. Here’s what happened:
During the show, he started asking me a series of questions about an Iranian
general and various terrorist leaders. “I’m looking for the next commander in
chief to know who Hassan Nasrallah is, and Zawahiri, and al-Julani, and al-
Baghdadi. Do you know the players without a scorecard yet?”
What a ridiculous question. I don’t think knowing the names of each
terrorist leader more than a year before the election is a test of whether
someone is qualified. We’re not playing Trivial Pursuit. Every question Hugh
asked me was like that—although I noticed he didn’t ask too many questions
about our economic policy or about reforming the tax system—things I’ve spent
my life mastering. Instead, he asked these “gotcha” questions that proved
nothing except that he was able to read some names and pronounce them
correctly. Does anybody believe George W. Bush and Barack Obama could
name the leaders of all terrorist organizations? (Not that they are the standard!)
People see through this nonsense. We have real problems and I am talking
about how to fix them, and the media continues to play these same old games.
In the end though, Hugh Hewittt was just fine, and has since said some great
things about me.
Every question was “gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.” I gave Hewitt the best possible
answer: Those people probably won’t even be there in a year. I should have
added that if America doesn’t do the right things, we won’t be help much longer
either.
Let me tell you something: When I need to know something, I know it.
When I decided to build the most magnificent golf resort in the world in
Aberdeen, Scotland, I didn’t know the names of the Scottish officials who
would be involved in this project—but by the time we went to work, I knew
every person it was necessary to know. I’d probably met most of them, too. At
the beginning of any kind of project I know what I need to know—and then I

get the information to make sure the project gets done to my satisfaction. And I
have strong executives who know how to—as their title suggests—execute.
So here’s the way I work: I find the people who are the best in the world at
what needs to be done, then I hire them to do it, and then I let them do it . . .
but I always watch over them.
We have great military leaders in this country. We produce the finest
officers and soldiers anywhere in the world. And we have some really smart
men and women working in our intelligence community. These people spend
all day, every day, working on serious problems. These professionals are the real
experts. They know all the players.
One reason that I have been successful in business is that I hire the best
people. I pay them well, and I keep them working for me. There are times when
I meet someone working on the other side of the deal. Maybe they don’t beat
me, but they give me a tough time. I respect that. In fact, I respect that so
much that sometimes I hire them away from the company they were
negotiating for.
Truthfully though, I can’t really blame Hugh Hewitt for doing what he did.
Just like Megyn Kelly, he figured out that the best way to get attention is to
attack Donald Trump. This guy got more headlines from our little exchange
than he probably ever got in his whole career. It wasn’t the names of terrorist
leaders that he cared about—it was his own name. And it worked for him.
It’s just the same old game, where the people come last. That needs to
change, too.
Begging for attention really sums up the problem we face in this country
with our media. There is such competition that they’re more interested in
entertaining their audience than educating them. They like me because I help
them attract more viewers. They hate me because they know I don’t need them.
I learned a long time ago how to talk directly to the people who matter—to
regular Americans who are fed up with the career politicians.
That’s probably you—the real Americans—which is why I’ve written this
book.

3
IMMIGRATION: GOOD WALLS MAKE GOOD
NEIGHBORS
WHEN I ANNOUNCED MY candidacy I spoke for almost an hour, covering just about every
challenge that we’re facing. But the subject that got the most attention was my
focus on our immigration policy. Or, in fact, our lack of any coherent
immigration policy. I was pretty tough on illegal immigrants, and a lot of people
didn’t like that. I said that many countries are dumping their worst people on
our border and that it has to stop. A country that doesn’t control its borders
can’t survive—especially with what’s going on right now.
What I said only makes common sense. I speak to border patrol guards, and
they tell us who we’re letting across our border. The countries south of us are
not sending us their best people. The bad people are coming from places other
than just Mexico. They’re coming from all over Central and South America, and
they’re coming probably—probably—from the Middle East. Let me add now:
Allowing tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in the door will certainly bring a
lot of problems. But we won’t know how bad, because we have no protection
and we have no competence. We don’t know what’s happening. It’s got to stop,
and it’s got to stop quickly.
Later in my announcement I added, “I would build a great wall, and nobody
builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build it very inexpensively. I
will build a great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for
that wall. Mark my words.” I spoke for quite a while that day. I covered just
about all the problems our country is facing. But what did the media report
about that speech? “Trump is anti-immigration.” “Trump calls immigrants

rapists.” “Trump is starting a war with Mexico.” You want to know why we
aren’t solving our problems? Why nothing changes? It’s because we’re not
facing the problems and taking action.
The flow of illegal immigrants into this country is one of the most serious
problems we face. It’s killing us. But until I made that point during my speech,
nobody was talking about it honestly. And instead of saying, “Trump’s right and
we’d better do something to stop illegal immigration right now or we’re going to
lose our country,” they said, “Oh, what a terrible thing Trump said about the
nice people who live south of our borders. I hope they don’t get upset at us
because of that. Maybe he’ll apologize.” I understand why that happened. It’s a
lot easier to criticize me for being blunt than it is to actually admit this
immigration situation is a dangerous problem and then to find a way to deal
with it.
Let me state this clearly: I am not against immigration.
My mother emigrated to this country from Scotland in 1918 and married my
father, whose parents had come here from Germany in 1885. My parents were
two of the best people who ever lived, and it was millions of people like them
who made this country so wonderful and so successful.
I love immigration.
Immigrants come to this country, they want to work hard, be successful,
raise their kids, and share in the American dream. It’s a beautiful story. I can
close my eyes and just imagine what my relatives must have been thinking
when they sailed past the Statue of Liberty into New York and their new lives.
And if they could only see the results of their risk and sacrifice! How can
anyone not appreciate the courage it took for these people to leave their
families and come here?
What I don’t love is the concept of illegal immigration.
It’s not fair to everyone else, including people who have been waiting on line
for years to come into our country legally. And the flood of illegal immigrants
coming across our borders has become a dangerous problem. We don’t protect
our borders. We don’t know who’s here, but I bet wherever they came from
knows that they are gone. Yet those governments do nothing to help us. The
estimate is that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in America, but the fact
is that nobody knows how many there really are. We have no way of tracking
them.
What we do know is that some of those immigrants are a source of real
crime. In 2011, the Government Accountability Office reported that there were

three million arrests that could be attributed to the incarcerated alien
population, including tens of thousands of violent criminals. There were
351,000 criminal illegal aliens in our prisons—that number does not include
the crime of crossing our borders. It costs us more than a billion dollars a year
just to keep these people in prison.
I understand that the vast majority of these people are honest, decent,
hardworking people who came here to improve their own lives and their
children’s lives. America holds so much promise, and what honest person
wouldn’t want to come here to try to make a better life for himself and his
children? But illegal immigration is a problem that must be confronted by the
United States government who, in turn, must confront other countries. I feel as
sorry for these individuals as anyone else does. Conditions in some of their
countries are deplorable.
Nonetheless, illegal immigration has to stop. A country that can’t protect its
borders isn’t a country. We are the only country in the world whose immigration
system places the needs of other nations ahead of our own.
There is a word to describe people who do that: fools.
I have great respect for the people of Mexico. The people have tremendous
spirit. I’ve been involved in deals with Mexican businessmen. But those
businessmen aren’t the people the Mexican government is sending us. Too
many people have forgotten the Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Fidel Castro told the
Cuban people that anyone who wanted to leave Cuba was free to do so.
President Carter opened our borders to anyone who came here. Except Castro
was too smart for him. He emptied Cuba’s prisons and insane asylums and sent
his biggest problems here. He got rid of the worst people in that country, and
we were left to deal with them. More than 125,000 Cubans came here, and
despite there being many, many great ones, some were criminals or had mental
problems. More than thirty years later we’re still dealing with that.
Does anybody really believe that the Mexican government—for that matter,
all the governments in South and Central America—didn’t get that message?
The Mexican government has published pamphlets explaining how to illegally
emigrate to the United States. Which makes my point—this is not about a few
individuals seeking a better life; this is about foreign governments behaving
badly and our own career politicians and “leaders” not doing their jobs.
And who can blame these foreign governments? It’s a great way for those
governments to get rid of their worst people without paying any price for their
bad behavior. Instead of putting these bad people in their prisons, they send

them to us. And the bad guys are bringing the drug business and other criminal
activity with them. Some of them are rapists, as a matter of fact, and as we have
now seen in San Francisco, some of them are killers. The man who shot and
killed a beautiful young woman had been pushed out of Mexico five times. He
should have been in jail there, but instead they sent him here.
The price we’re paying for illegal immigration is enormous.
It has to stop.
The first thing we need to do is secure our southern border—and we need to
do it now. We have to stop that flood, and the best way to do that is to build a
wall. People say you can’t do it—how do you build a wall across the whole
border?
Believe me, it can be done.
Nobody can build a wall like me. I will build a great wall on our southern
border. It doesn’t have to cover the entire border. Some areas are already
secured with physical barriers. In other areas the terrain is too difficult for
people to cross. It’s probably about 1,000 miles we will need to secure with the
new wall.
There are people who say it can’t be done, that it’s not possible to build a
wall 1,000 miles long. Except beginning more than 2,000 years ago the Chinese
built a wall that eventually stretched almost 13,000 miles that could never be
breached. It was a combination of massive walls, impassible trenches and
ditches, and rugged natural terrain, as well as an estimated 25,000
watchtowers. Believe me, our wall-building technology has improved a lot in
2,000 years. What we don’t have that the Chinese had is the commitment to do
it. They understood the danger of leaving their border unprotected and they did
something about it. We talk about it and do nothing.
Walls work. The Israelis spent $2 million per kilometer to build a wall—
which has been hugely successful in stopping terrorists from getting into the
country. Ironically, some of the same people who claim we shouldn’t build this
wall cite the success of Israel’s wall. While obviously we don’t face the same
level of terrorist threat as our closest Middle East ally, there is no question
about the value of a wall in the fight against terrorism.
Many people don’t know that even Mexico has built its own wall on its
southern border—to keep out illegal immigrants.
It wouldn’t even be that difficult. We already have a model: Yuma, Arizona,
for example, built three walls separated by a 75-yard no-man’s-land that allows
border agents to patrol within that area with their vehicles. They installed

cameras, radio communications, radar, and a great lighting system. After it was
built, the 120-mile-long stretch known as the Yuma sector saw an incredible 72
percent decrease in the number of people apprehended trying to get into this
country illegally—and mine will be much better.
Construction of the wall needs to start as soon as possible. And Mexico has
to pay for it.
Let me repeat that, one way or another: Mexico will pay for it.
How? We could increase the various border fees we charge. We could
increase the fees on temporary visas. We could even impound remittance
payments derived from illegal wages. Foreign governments could tell their
embassies to start helping, otherwise they risk troubled relations with America.
If necessary we could pay for the wall through a tariff or cut foreign aid to
Mexico or simply make it clear to the Mexican government that it is to the
benefit of their very profitable—for them—relationship with the United States
to pay for it.
But one way or another, they are going to pay for it.
I don’t mind putting a big, beautiful door in that wall so people can come in
and out . . . LEGALLY.
The wall will be a good start, but by itself it won’t be enough. Without the
wall, however, everything else is more of the same old big talk we hear from the
politicians.
We’ve been trying to get this problem under control for more than 75 years.
We’ve tried a lot of different solutions, and the result is that now illegal
immigration is worse than ever. One of the solutions that did show promise was
President Eisenhower’s attempt to deal with illegal immigration on our southern
border, which had become known as the truly terribly named “Operation
Wetback.” But even with that awful name the program was successful. It was a
joint effort between the INS and the Mexican government. Special immigration
teams were created to quickly process and deport illegal immigrants. One of the
reasons it worked is that people who were caught were given to Mexican
government agents, who moved them into central Mexico, where they could
find jobs. In the first year, more than one million people were sent back.
What we need is the comprehensive program I have outlined that will enable
us to get our immigration system under control. It starts with enforcing the
existing laws. A country either has laws or it doesn’t. But having laws that we
don’t enforce makes no sense to me. And in addition to keeping bad people
from coming in, we’ve got to get the criminals out. When you break our laws

you get thrown out. It’s simple. Why should we absorb the expense of keeping
criminals in prisons? Let their countries of origin deal with the problems they
sent us. If they refuse to take them back, we can stop issuing visas to those
countries, preventing their citizens from legally visiting the United States.
I also would triple the number of immigration officers we currently employ
until the wall is built. We are asking these people to do a job that would be
difficult even if they had all the support they need, and they don’t. Think of it
this way: Currently there are about 5,000 officers attempting to enforce the
existing immigration laws against the more than 11 million illegal aliens.
Compare that to the 10,000 members of the Los Angeles Police Department or
the 35,000 officers in the New York Police Department. Since 9/11 we have
tripled the size of the border patrol but haven’t substantially increased the
number of ICE officers—the officers who enforce immigration laws.
The career politicians love to talk about having a nationwide “E-verify
system” so potential employers will be able to determine who is here legally and
eligible for work and who isn’t. Certainly, this will help protect the jobs for
unemployed Americans. But let’s not kid ourselves. Our “leaders” must lead on
this, and engage with foreign governments to stop illegal immigration, and not
simply impose something on our businesses and think that some Internet
verification system alone will solve the problem.
We have to cut off federal grants to sanctuary cities—those places that
refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement and actually abet criminal
behavior—we have to end them. I repeat, we either are a nation of laws or we’re
not.
We also need to do what is necessary to enforce our visa regulations. People
get a visa and come here legally, and when that visa expires, many stay here
illegally. If they get caught, nothing happens to them. That’s got to change. We
need to have real penalties for people who overstay their visas. I am sick and
tired of hearing politicians who are all talk and no action. President Obama and
his people are great at sending letters and press releases, but they never seem to
have any consequences for foreign governments that don’t listen to them.
Most important is ending or curtailing so-called birthright citizenship, or
anchor babies. American citizenship is an extraordinary gift. Its value over a
lifetime can’t be measured. So the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment has
been interpreted to mean that any child born in the United States automatically
is an American citizen—and that baby can be used as an anchor to keep its
family here—is the single biggest magnet attracting illegal immigrants.

The Fourteenth Amendment was never intended to be used that way. The
original purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868,
following the Civil War, was to guarantee all rights granted to citizens in the
Constitution to freed slaves. No serious historian could possibly interpret any of
the supporting language in the Congressional Record that the birthright
citizenship was intended for anyone other than the freed slaves.
It wasn’t until 1898 that the Supreme Court ruled that, with certain specific
exceptions, the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to
the children of those lawfully here who gave birth on American soil. By a huge
margin, Americans want to change that policy. Even Democrat Harry Reid
admitted that “no sane country” would grant citizenship to the children of
illegal immigrants. It’s estimated that about 300,000 of these children are born
here annually. That’s 300,000 children who are entitled to all the rights and
privileges granted to American citizens because their mothers entered this
country illegally by walking over the border for a day in the south or by flying in
from another country under fraudulent documentation. There are businesses
that specialize in making this happen! They call it “birth tourism”—pregnant
foreign women travel to this country just so that they can give birth here to
babies who then automatically become American citizens.
Citizenship is not a gift we can afford to keep giving away, and I will find a
legal way of stopping this policy. A lot of really smart people and lawyers believe
the Fourteenth Amendment was never intended to create a whole new path to
citizenship. We’re going to test it every possible way. We will win in court and
we will win in Congress.
I don’t want to stop legal immigration to this country. In fact, I would like to
reform and increase immigration in some important ways. Our current
immigration laws are upside down—they make it tough on the people we need
to have here, and easy for the people we don’t want here.
This country is a magnet for many of the smartest, hardest-working people
born in other countries, yet we make it difficult for these bright people who
follow the laws to settle here.
It’s amazing that people who come here to earn a master’s degree and who
demonstrate wonderful skills are forced to wait on a very long line when they
want to stay and contribute to this country. In fact, for a lot of them, their
number may never be called. Bright young kids come here from all over the
world to study in our colleges. They get the best education in the world. They
graduate with honors and we hand them a diploma and a plane ticket. Their

mistake is that they are honest people—they follow the law. They want to stay
here, but we send them back to their countries, and ultimately they use the
knowledge they gained here to compete against us.
If you’re a criminal, though, or an unskilled worker, or someone escaping
criminal charges in another country, you are able to sneak into our country and
in many cases get some benefits and never leave. These “enforcement” policies
and this backward approach to immigration have to change. Our immigration
policy needs to work to make America great again.
My immigration policy is actually pretty simple. We need to make changes
to our laws to make it easier for those people who can contribute to this country
to come here legally while making it impossible for criminal elements and other
people to get here illegally. I want good people to come here from all over the
world, but I want them to do so legally. We can expedite the process, we can
reward achievement and excellence, but we have to respect the legal process.
And those people who take advantage of the system and come here illegally
should never enjoy the benefits of being a resident—or citizen—of this nation.
So I am against any path to citizenship for undocumented workers or anyone
else who is in this country illegally.
They should—and need to—go home and get in line.
And you know who agrees with me? The Mexicans, the Chinese, and all the
people from other countries who want to be here legally and can’t get a visa or
fit into a quota, yet see millions of people living here illegally. They don’t
understand how we can undermine our own interests.
If you have laws that you don’t enforce, then you don’t have laws. This leads
to lawlessness.
We can be generous and do all of this humanely. But the security and
prosperity of American citizens have to come first.
Our country, our people, and our laws have to be our top priority.

4
FOREIGN POLICY: FIGHTING FOR PEACE
THE CAREER DIPLOMATS WHO got us into many foreign policy messes say I have no
experience in foreign policy. They think that successful diplomacy requires
years of experience and an understanding of all the nuances that have to be
carefully considered before reaching a conclusion. Only then do these
pinstriped bureaucrats consider taking action.
Look at the state of the world right now. It’s a terrible mess, and that’s
putting it kindly.
There has never been a more dangerous time. The so-called insiders within
the Washington ruling class are the people who got us into this trouble. So why
should we continue to pay attention to them?
Some of these so-called “experts” are trying to scare people by saying that my
approach would make the world more dangerous.
More dangerous? More dangerous than what? More dangerous than where
we are now?
Here’s what I know—what we are doing now isn’t working. And years ago,
when I was just starting out in business, I figured out a pretty simple approach
that has always worked well for me:
When you’re digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole, stop digging.
My approach to foreign policy is built on a strong foundation: Operate from
strength. That means we have to maintain the strongest military in the world,
by far. We have to demonstrate a willingness to use our economic strength to
reward those countries that work with us and punish those countries that don’t.
That means going after the banks and financial institutions that launder money

for our enemies, then move it around to facilitate terrorism. And we have to
create alliances with our allies that reveal mutual benefits.
If we’re going to continue to be the policemen of the world, we ought to be
paid for it.
Teddy Roosevelt always believed we should “speak softly and carry a big
stick.” I’ve never been afraid to speak up to protect my interests and, truthfully,
I don’t understand why we don’t speak more loudly about the ways we are
losing around the world. If we don’t speak up, how is anything ever going to get
better? How are we ever going to win?
America is the most powerful country in the world and we shouldn’t be
afraid to say it. “Iron Mike” Tyson, the famous fighter, once explained his
philosophy, saying, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
The first thing we need to do is build up our ability to throw that punch. We
need to spend whatever it takes to completely fund our military properly.
Fifteen years ago I wrote, “We can’t pursue forward military and foreign-policy
objectives on a backward military budget.”
The best way not to have to use your military power is to make sure that
power is visible.
When people know that we will use force if necessary and that we really
mean it, we’ll be treated differently.
With respect.
Right now, no one believes us because we’ve been so weak with our
approach to military policy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Building up our military is cheap when you consider the alternative. We’re
buying peace and we’re locking in our national security. Right now we are in
bad shape militarily. We’re decreasing the size of our forces and we’re not giving
them the best equipment. Recruiting the best people has fallen off, and we
can’t get the people we have trained to the level they need to be. There are a lot
of questions about the state of our nuclear weapons. When I read reports of
what is going on, I’m shocked.
It’s no wonder nobody respects us. It’s no surprise that we never win.
Spending money on our military is also smart business. Who do people think
build our airplanes and ships, and all the equipment that our troops should
have? American workers, that’s who. So building up our military also makes
economic sense because it allows us to put real money into the system and put
thousands of people back to work.

There is another way to pay to modernize our military forces. If other
countries are depending on us to protect them, shouldn’t they be willing to
make sure we have the capability to do it? Shouldn’t they be willing to pay for
the servicemen and servicewomen and the equipment we’re providing?
Depending on the price of oil, Saudi Arabia earns somewhere between half a
billion and a billion dollars every day. They wouldn’t exist, let alone have that
wealth, without our protection. We get nothing from them. Nothing.
We defend Germany. We defend Japan. We defend South Korea. These are
powerful and wealthy countries. We get nothing from them.
It’s time to change all that. It’s time to win again.
We’ve got 28,500 wonderful American soldiers on South Korea’s border with
North Korea. They’re in harm’s way every single day. They’re the only thing that
is protecting South Korea. And what do we get from South Korea for it? They
sell us products—at a nice profit. They compete with us.
We spent two trillion dollars doing whatever we did in Iraq. I still don’t know
why we did it, but we did. Iraq is sitting on an ocean of oil. Is it out of line to
suggest that they should contribute to their own future? And after the blood
and the money we spent trying to bring some semblance of stability to the Iraqi
people, maybe they should be willing to make sure we can rebuild the army that
fought for them.
When Kuwait was attacked by Saddam Hussein, all the wealthy Kuwaitis ran
to Paris. They didn’t just rent suites—they took up whole buildings, entire
hotels. They lived like kings while their country was occupied.
Who did they turn to for help? Who else? Uncle Sucker. That’s us.
We spent billions of dollars sending our army to win back Kuwait. Our
people were killed and wounded, but the Iraqis went back to their country.
About two months after the war, several Kuwaitis came up to my office to
discuss a deal I wanted to do with them. Believe me, they would not have lost
money on this deal. They told me, “No, no, no, we do not like the United States
for investment purposes. We have great respect for you, but we want to invest
outside of the United States.”
We had just handed them back their country!
They were watching TV in the best hotel rooms in Paris while our kids were
fighting for them. And they didn’t want to invest in this country?
How stupid are we?!
Why didn’t the United States make a deal with them that outlined how they
would pay for us to get their country back for them? They would have paid

anything if just asked.
The point is, we’re spending trillions of dollars to safeguard other countries.
We’re paying for the privilege of fighting their battles. It makes no sense to me.
It really is time the rest of the world paid their fair share, and if I have
anything to say about it, they will!
The biggest question people ask about foreign policy is at what point do we put
boots on the ground? We can’t be afraid to use our military, but sending our
sons and daughters should be the very last resort. I’ve seen what wars do to our
kids. I’ve seen their broken bodies, know all about the horrors that live in their
heads, and the enormous effects of trauma. We cannot commit American
troops to battle without a real and tangible objective.
My rules of engagement have always been pretty simple—if we are going to
intervene in a conflict, there had better be a direct threat to our national
interests. The threat should be so obvious that most Americans will know
where the hot spot is on the globe and will quickly understand why we are
getting involved. Also, we’d better have an airtight plan to win and get out.
In other words, my strategy would be the exact opposite of our strategy in
going to war with Iraq.
Iraq was no threat to us. The American people had no idea why the Bush
administration decided to attack.
Our brilliant strategists had to twist our intelligence reports and drum up
reasons for an invasion. We targeted Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of
mass destruction as a justification. There was no plan (or a very flawed one) to
win and leave. Before the war started I came out very strongly against it. It
made no sense to me. I said then that it would be a disaster and would
destabilize the Middle East. I said that without Iraq to hold them back, Iran
would attempt to take over the Middle East.
And that’s exactly what has happened.
There are some places in the world where massive force is necessary. The
threat from ISIS is real. It is a new kind of enemy and it has to be stopped. The
longer we wait before doing that, the more dangerous it will become. We don’t
need another 9/11 to understand that these people want to kill us, and we’re
not doing enough to prevent them from spreading their vicious brand of
terrorism. The headlines and videos tell us what we’re dealing with: rapes,

kidnapping, and lining up civilians in order to cut their heads off. There is also
strong evidence that ISIS is resorting to chemical warfare.
It’s time to get serious about our response. Either we’re fighting to win or
we’re going to continue to be big losers.
Unfortunately, it may require boots on the ground to fight the Islamic State.
I don’t think it’s necessary to broadcast our strategy. (In fact, one of the most
ridiculous policy blunders President Obama has committed was to announce
our timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.) If military advisers
recommend it, we should commit a limited—but sufficient—number of troops
to fight on the ground. We could also easily expand air operations to make it
impossible for ISIS to ever find safe haven anywhere in the region. Our policy
of trying to be “advisers” in the field has certainly been a failure.
However, I have a unique perspective on what action we should take. While
ISIS is our most violent enemy, they ended up with oil in Iraq and Syria that we
should have taken. That oil, along with ransom and extortion, is funding their
army. I’ve advocated bombing the hell out of those oil fields to cut off the
source of their money. This would barely affect the world oil supply, but it
would dramatically reduce their ability to fund terrorism.
We have to take that oil because it is the source of their wealth. We would
hit them so hard and so fast in so many different ways they wouldn’t know what
happened. And then we’d hit them again and again until ISIS ceased to exist as
a threat to anybody.
We don’t have a choice. These people are medieval barbarians. They cut off
heads, they drown people, they torture people, and we can’t allow them to ever
gain a safe foothold anywhere.
The number of ISIS troops is relatively small. Our intelligence community
has estimated that there are no more than 30,000 to 50,000 ISIS fighters.
People are usually surprised by that number. ISIS has done such a good job
promoting fear that people assume it to be a much larger force. It isn’t. The
entire ISIS force probably wouldn’t even fill Yankee Stadium. So defeating
them requires a real commitment to go after them relentlessly wherever they
are, without stopping, until every one of them is dead—and always bringing in
other countries to help out.
Iran is a much more complex problem.
I am not afraid to criticize President Obama when he gets it wrong. When
he was running for president in 2008, he correctly said, “Iran is a grave threat.

It has an illicit nuclear program, it supports terrorism across the region and
militias in Iraq, it threatens Israel’s existence, and it denies the Holocaust.”
So why when Iran was struggling financially would he agree to a nuclear deal
that releases billions of dollars’ worth of assets, which will further subsidize
their terrorism business? It makes no sense.
Iran was a powerful nation until the religious fanatics took over. As long as
those people remain in power, Iran will be our enemy and a threat to Israel’s
existence. Their supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has promised that Israel
won’t exist in 25 years. We have to take that threat seriously and act
accordingly.
I’ve always loved and admired the Jewish people and supported the special
relationship we have with Israel. The next president has to restore our
traditionally strong partnership. We have been there for Israel and will continue
to be there for Israel, because it is the one stable democracy in that region. It
has become a fair-trading partner and a fellow pioneer on the frontiers of
medicine, communications, technology, and energy development, which will
benefit both of our nations well into the future.
The miles that separate us right now from Iran are only a temporary barrier
for them. If, or when, they develop missiles that can reach this country they will
become a much greater threat. Meanwhile, they are financially supporting
terrorist groups all over the world—and those groups are a real threat to our
country and to our military serving overseas. Our enemies no longer need huge
armies or billion-dollar missile systems to attack this country. Technology has
made it possible for one or two terrorists to inflict terrible damage on us. We’ve
got to stop Iran from sponsoring these murderers.
But instead, we continue losing.
The deal President Obama negotiated with Iran was the worst I have ever
seen. We couldn’t have done worse.
Iran was boxed in and the sanctions were hurting them. President Obama
put his “legacy” on the line and before we walked into negotiations, the mullahs
knew he had to have a deal or end up looking even more incompetent, so they
fleeced him.
Disgraceful.
We did everything wrong in those negotiations. Instead of removing the
sanctions that forced the Iranians to negotiate, we should have doubled or
tripled the sanctions.

Remember the principal strategy of negotiation: The side that needs the deal
the most is the one that should walk away with the least.
I would have increased the sanctions until the conditions there were so
terrible that the Iranian leaders were begging for a deal.
I would have laid down certain conditions that had to be agreed to, starting
with the release of our four prisoners.
I wouldn’t have settled for less than a complete dismantling of all their
nuclear facilities, destruction of all their centrifuges, and on-site inspections
anytime, anywhere.
We didn’t get any of that—none of it—and then we released billions of
dollars that had been frozen.
We literally paid them to force us to accept a terrible deal. That would be
like me beginning negotiations to build another magnificent skyscraper along
the Hudson with 50-mile views in all directions, and walking out with approval
to put up a small three-story building facing a wall.
Iran got what it wanted (the release of their seized assets) and in return gave
up what might have seemed like huge concessions, only to find out that there
were so many loopholes that it will be nearly impossible to enforce anything
meaningful.
The possibility of Iran defying the world and developing a nuclear weapon is
still very real. If the Iranians decide to prevent us (or the International Atomic
Energy Agency) from inspecting their facilities, there isn’t too much that we
can do about it other than take military action. The coalition of countries that
enforced those sanctions is finished. Those countries—and several of them
couldn’t care less about Israel—had people in Tehran talking business before
the ink had dried on the side agreements.
And then President Obama wouldn’t let Congress look at the deal. Once the
new Iranian “partners” start making money there is no way the sanctions can
ever be put back into place.
Unfortunately, the deal is done. Once the sanctions are removed there is no
going back, no “snapback.” Putting sanctions back in place unilaterally won’t do
any good. I am especially good at reading a contract. There is always a loophole,
we need to find it and, if necessary, they will pay big-league dollars.
Whatever it takes, whatever we have to do, Iran cannot be allowed to build a
nuclear weapon.
There are many different ways to make sure that Iran is never armed with
nuclear weapons. I’d be happy to sit down with the Iranian leaders when they

understand that the best course for them, if they want to be a major player in
the civilized world, is to close down their entire nuclear program. An Iran with a
nuclear weapon would start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East with
potentially devastating consequences. The situation would rapidly escalate to
being the most dangerous threat Israel has ever faced. And it would force us to
use extreme measures in defense of Israel and other allies in the region.
That’s not going to happen, whatever Iran might think right now.
Today the world has to deal with two “sets” of China.
The good China is the one that has built great cities and provided housing
and education for millions of people. The good China allows its citizens to
travel around the world and get an education, and has helped create a growing
middle class.
The bad China is the one that’s mostly hidden to outsiders. It’s the
government that controls Internet access for its citizens, cracks down on
political dissent, closes newspapers, jails dissidents, restricts individual
freedoms, launches cyber-attacks, and uses its clout around the world to
manipulate economies.
And all the while it is building up its military strength.
There is no question that dealing with China, along with Russia, is going to
continue to be our biggest challenge long-term.
Our competition with China right now is economic, and we’ve been losing
that battle for a long time. China has become our third-largest trading partner,
behind only our neighbors Canada and Mexico. Yet China holds more of our
American debt—more than $1.5 trillion—than any other country. (Although
Japan is close.) As we saw in the summer of 2015 when the Chinese stock
markets collapsed, our economies are tied together in a very negative way.
Many years ago, there was an adage that “When General Motors sneezes,
the stock market catches a cold.” In those days, GM was such a big player in
the economy that if it stumbled, our economy suffered, too. The recent
precipitous decline of the Chinese stock market caused our own Dow Jones
average to plummet 1,000 points in a couple of days as investors ran for cover.
Likewise, our trade deficit has been a dangerous drag on our economy. When
China devalues its currency, this upsets the already tenuous balance of trade.
We know that we have become dependent on the emerging Chinese markets
—but they have become dependent on us, too. In 2014, we imported 17

percent more Chinese goods than any other country in the world. Hong Kong,
which is a wholly owned subsidiary of China, was second and Japan a distant
third. The health of the Chinese economy depends on us. They need our trade
more than we need them.
Foolishly, we don’t use that to our advantage.
For the last few decades, China’s economy has been growing at a
phenomenal 9 to 10 percent each year, although more recently there are signs
of a cooling off. Despite these recent upheavals, economists have made
predictions that within the next decade, China will replace the United States as
the world’s largest economy. What have we done to make sure we will be able
to compete with them? What have we done to beat them?
I’ll tell you what we’ve done: We’ve rolled over.
There are people who wish I wouldn’t refer to China as our enemy. But
that’s exactly what they are. They have destroyed entire industries by utilizing
low-wage workers, cost us tens of thousands of jobs, spied on our businesses,
stolen our technology, and have manipulated and devalued their currency,
which makes importing our goods more expensive—and sometimes, impossible.
I know from my own experience that this is a difficult problem. The Chinese
are very savvy businesspeople, and they have great advantages over our
manufacturers. I’ve had several Trump-brand products made there.
That’s a good example of the difference between a politician and a
businessman. To stay in business I have to be smarter than my competition. I
could make a very important point if I refused to have my goods manufactured
there.
As long as we’re playing under these conditions American companies don’t
have a choice. Third-world countries have substantially lower production costs.
They have lower overhead and pay their workers a lot less. As a businessman, I
have an obligation to all of my employees and to consumers and stockholders to
produce the best product at the lowest possible price.
However, as a matter of American global policy, we want to take away
China’s advantages. Last year, President Obama went to China and they held a
beautiful banquet for him. Before Chinese president Xi Jinping made a
reciprocal visit here, the White House announced plans for a lavish dinner. I
made the point that hosting a state dinner in his honor was about the last thing
I would do. Instead I’d tell him it was time we got down to business, and we
would go to work. For starters, the Chinese regime must stop devaluing their

currency because doing so makes it even harder for the rest of the world to
compete.
The reality is that China needs a strong American economy as much as we
need their business. In May 2015, for example, Americans bought $1 out of
every $5 worth of products China exported that month. We buy almost 20
percent of all their exports, considerably more than the EU does, which is the
second-biggest consumer of Chinese goods. And that American percentage is
increasing every year, making China more and more dependent on the
American consumer for its own prosperity.
As Steve Forbes wrote in his magazine, “China’s holdings in US Treasuries,
which reached record levels in 2013, are setting off alarm bells. They shouldn’t.
They underscore that Beijing is becoming more dependent on the US and the
rest of the world for its strength and prosperity.”
Remember: The Chinese need us as much as we need them.
Maybe even more.
So what should we do about it? We are going to use the leverage we have to
change the situation so that it favors America and our people. We have to start
by getting tough with the Chinese. I’ve negotiated with Chinese companies. I
know how they do business. I’m actually landlord to China’s largest bank, which
has its offices in Trump Tower. We’ve successfully negotiated several leases. It
hasn’t always been easy. These are skilled people but I never backed down.
Believe me, I know the best negotiators in this country, and a lot of them
would be ready to go to work creating a fair balance of trade. If people like Carl
Icahn were representing America, we would see a big difference in our trading
policy.
We actually hold a very strong hand. Unfortunately, our politicians are either
too stupid or too foolish to understand this. Maybe they are both. We have
several very good options, but it is always important to be flexible—and never
reveal our cards. Our politicians talk too much.
President Obama makes strong statements and promises us vigorous actions
then nothing happens.
So what happens when he makes those promises and never follows through?
He loses all his credibility. I wonder what our great generals, men like
MacArthur and Patton, would say if they heard a president revealing our plans
for the Middle East or daring our enemies to cross a line.
A very good story recently quoted a businessman describing me as
“unpredictable,” noting it was one of my better qualities and helped me make a

lot of money. Now that I am running for president, which so many experts
predicted I would not do, that same trait has made it really hard for all my
critics to figure out how to compete with my message. They’re all busy playing
nicely, following all the establishment rules, taking every predictable step,
trying to fit inside the conventional wisdom—and when I don’t play that game,
they don’t know how to respond.
Tipping your hand is one of the dumbest mistakes you can make in a military
confrontation. I’ve read a lot of history and I don’t recall reading that General
George Washington made hotel reservations in Valley Forge, or that he sent
ahead his best wishes to the Hessians in Trenton. The element of surprise wins
battles. So I don’t tell the other side what I’m doing, I don’t warn them, and I
don’t let them fit me comfortably into a predictable pattern. I don’t want people
to know exactly what I’m doing—or thinking. I like being unpredictable.
It keeps them off balance.
As a leader, I also know there are times when you should keep your cards
close to the vest. When I was assembling property to build a skyscraper, for
example, I had to buy many small lots so I could combine them into one very
large and valuable buildable location, and total secrecy was an absolute
necessity. If the owners of those properties had found out what I was doing
they would have been able to squeeze considerably more money out of me for
their properties.
My point is that right now we’re doing too much talking.
When dealing with China we need to stand up to them and remind them
that it’s bad business to take advantage of your best customer. And then we
should sit down and figure out how to make this a more equitable relationship.
There is no one-size-fits-all foreign policy. We need to make our beliefs very
clear and let them form the framework of our policy.
Everything begins with a strong military. Everything.
We will have the strongest military in our history, and our people will be
equipped with the best weaponry and protection available.
Period.
That means the best missile systems, the best cyber-warfare training and
equipment, and the best-trained soldiers. And when they come home after a
war, battered and bruised, our troops won’t have to wait months for treatment.
We owe those who serve us the best and the fastest care. It’s ridiculous how
long our vets have to wait to get the help they deserve. They are our heroes, and
the present administration has forgotten them.

So how do we turn the tide and start winning again?
As I’ve said, it starts with the most advanced and muscular military in the
world, the most mobile one as well. We need to put some of the bill for this
transformation on the Saudi Arabians, the South Koreans, the Germans, the
Japanese, and the British. We’re protecting them, after all, and they should
share in the costs.
Next, we need to operate from a position of economic strength. We have the
most powerful consumer engine in the world. We just need to start using it to
our full advantage.
Nobody likes to do business more than I do, but every deal I make will have
one objective: America wins.
We need to use the economic strength of American markets and the
American consumer to assist our friends and remind our enemies about the
benefits of cooperation.
We need to use those strengths to form stronger alliances with our natural
allies, but we need to expect them to be there when they are needed. I still
don’t understand why Germany and other countries watched impassively as
Putin marched into Ukraine. You can be sure Israel can be counted on to stand
tall with us in the Middle East.
And finally, we need to pay special attention to the Chinese. Their days of
undercutting us with protectionist policies and cyber-theft are over.
The new dawn of America has just begun.

5
EDUCATION: A FAILING GRADE
MY FATHER DID NOT graduate from college. He was too busy working and building his
business, but he understood and appreciated the value of an education. He had
great respect for people with college degrees, even though he had built a large
real estate business and earned many times more than most of them. With my
father’s financial assistance, his younger brother, John, earned his master’s
degree in physics from Columbia and his PhD from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious universities in America.
John became a noted professor at MIT and invented one of the first million-volt
X-ray generators that was used to save the lives of cancer patients. During
World War II, he played an important role in the development of radar.
President Truman awarded him the President’s Certificate of Merit, and he was
a recipient of the National Medal of Science.
From my father and my uncle I learned the value of work and the value of a
good education. From my own experience I learned what happens when you
put them together. I went to the Wharton School of Finance at the University
of Pennsylvania, which is, in my opinion, the best business school in America—
and arguably the hardest there is to get into.
There is one thing I know that even the professional politicians will support
—education is good. It’s the easiest statement for a politician to support. But
the question is, how do we make sure the best education possible is available
for the most American kids?
Because right now that is not the situation.
Like so many other areas that our so-called leaders have wreaked their havoc
upon, the American educational system is failing. We’re 26th in the world—

26th! That’s an embarrassment. We spend more money on education, per
capita, than any other nation—but 25 countries in the developed world provide
a better education for their kids than we do for ours. This is simply
unacceptable.
Part of the problem is the politicians! They are unable to run a national
education system with a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. Our states and
local districts are doing just fine making their own decisions on how best to
educate our children. Now the federal Department of Education has been
dictating educational policy for too long, and that needs to stop. Common Core
doesn’t work.
A lot of people believe the Department of Education should just be
eliminated. Get rid of it. If we don’t eliminate it completely, we certainly need
to cut its power and reach. Education has to be run locally. Common Core, No
Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top are all programs that take decisions
away from parents and local school boards. These programs allow the
progressives in the Department of Education to indoctrinate, not educate, our
kids. What they are doing does not fit the American model of governance.
I am totally against these programs and the Department of Education. It’s a
disaster. We cannot continue to fail our children—the very future of this
nation.
I went to a military school, New York Military Academy. It was a tough,
tough place. There were ex-drill sergeants all over the place. and these people
liked to scream and, above all, they liked to fight! Our instructors were
demanding about everything from academics to personal hygiene. I learned
American history and I learned how to neatly fold my clothing so it could be
stacked. That might not be a skill that has had much application in my life, but
it was part of teaching my fellow cadets and me discipline, focus, and self-
reliance.
The main rule was pretty simple: Do it right or do it again. One of my
roommates from school told a reporter recently, “The school taught you how to
be a leader. It taught you, ‘show me a sore loser, and I’ll show you a loser.’ . . .
Honesty and straightforwardness were the rule of law. It got ingrained in us that
you don’t lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do.”
This may be why I never became a politician (until now)!
Our national educational system was never intended to be limited to the
three R’s, history, and science. It was designed to produce well-rounded young
people capable of prospering in the world. In addition to an education, kids

were supposed to graduate with some basic values, self-discipline, and life
skills. A little common sense wouldn’t hurt either. Our schools don’t teach that
anymore. Instead we’re more concerned about kids having self-esteem and
feeling good about themselves than we are about preparing them for real life.
The politically correct crowd has taken over our schools, and as a result we are
failing our children. And our children will fail America if we don’t do something
about it. Educators are worried that kids will feel bad if they flunk a test. You
know what makes a kid feel good?
Winning.
Succeeding.
We’ve dumbed down the curriculum to the lowest common denominator; in
many schools, we’ve eliminated grading entirely and diplomas have been
practically devalued into certificates of attendance.
Our schools, our teachers, and our kids are capable of more. A lot more.
The problem is we’re taking the easy way out. Instead of creating high
standards and demanding more, we’re expecting less. We have to get tougher.
Forget that self-esteem stuff; we need to start challenging kids. We need to
allow them to fail when they don’t work hard.
Anyone who has succeeded in business has survived a lot of failure—but
they were tough enough to get back up and try again and again. Kids need to
learn that success requires persistence. Self-esteem should come from
overcoming challenges and surviving the hard knocks of trying to be better.
Yet today, some teachers and school administrators are more concerned
about hurting their students’ feelings or about hearing complaints from parents
that they’re being too tough. Instead of becoming more competitive, we’re
actually eliminating competition. That’s incredible—and wrong.
Competition makes you stronger, it forces you to work harder, to do more.
Corporations that can’t compete with other companies go out of business, no
matter how nice they are or how good they feel about themselves. Small
businesses have the same challenge. The owners have to work hard and
compete for their survival or they won’t make it.
Competition is why I’m very much in favor of school choice. Let schools
compete for kids. I guarantee that if you forced schools to get better or close
because parents didn’t want to enroll their kids there, they would get better.
Those schools that weren’t good enough to attract students would close, and
that’s a good thing.

For two decades I’ve been urging politicians to open the schoolhouse doors
and let parents decide which schools are best for their children. Professional
educators look to options such as school choice, charter schools, voucher
programs, magnet schools, and opportunity scholarships.
Call them what you want—they all come down to the same thing: fostering
competition.
Those people who are against offering parents choices claim that doing so
would be the end of good public schools. Better charter or magnet schools
would drain the top kids out of that system, or hurt the morale of those left
behind.
Suddenly, the excellence that comes from competition is being criticized.
Let’s look at the facts. While the number of charter schools has grown
substantially, they are still a small percentage of our public schools. But it looks
like they are making a difference, especially in urban areas. Stanford
University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes looked at the impact
charter schools have made in 41 urban areas. They report that charter school
students, compared to students in public schools, learn 40 days more advanced
in math, and 28 more days in reading. That is significant, no matter how you
look at it.
Look, I know that people both for and against school choice can roll out
endless arguments and statistics showing charter schools are either very
successful or make no difference at all. This is a legitimate debate. But anyone
except a politician running for office and looking for support from the teacher
unions has to realize that smaller class sizes, more individualized instruction,
and stricter discipline all make a huge positive difference. Making teachers
accountable is important, but we should stop measuring their performance with
mindless standardized tests. We should be embracing the success stories and
using them as a model for improving the others.
I’m not as concerned about the kids growing up in wealthy communities,
where high property taxes have allowed them to build great schools, hire the
best teachers, and provide all the supplies they need. Those schools are doing
fine.
In many urban areas, however, schools must fight for every tax dollar and are
forced to have teachers and students bring in their own basic supplies such as
pencils and paper. That’s a national tragedy.
The problem with public schools is that in many places there is no way to
take an honest measurement of how they’re doing. If a charter school isn’t doing

the job, it closes. That’s the type of accountability we need throughout our
educational system.
One huge obstacle is the strength of the teacher unions. Teacher unions
don’t want school choice because it means a potential reduction in union-
protected jobs. In New York, for example, the unions have been so powerful for
so long that, more than four decades ago, Woody Allen had a scene in his movie
Sleeper in which a man wakes up in the future and is told that the world he’d
known had been destroyed when the president of the powerful teachers union
“got hold of a nuclear warhead.” Thanks to strong contracts negotiated by the
New York City teacher union, it’s become almost impossible to discipline a
teacher, much less actually fire one.
When there is a legitimate complaint against a teacher in the New York
system, rather than having a quick hearing to determine the validity of the
complaint, teachers are assigned to an area known as “the rubber room” while
they wait for their hearing.
And they wait. They sit in empty classrooms or converted closets and do
nothing—but they still get paid their whole salary. Some teachers spend several
years waiting. No wonder they call it the rubber room—the whole concept is
insane. But it’s the result of the contracts that strong unions have forced on
New York and other cities. When teacher unions fight against school choice the
unions are saying that their product isn’t good enough to compete in a free
marketplace. Maybe they are right. And what about the good teachers? They
can get stuck too and are at the mercy of the union.
These unions have a nice monopoly going, so why wouldn’t they want to
protect their turf? By the way, the teachers are not the only ones with
troublesome unions. In New York City, the janitors don’t arrive in the morning
until exactly the same time as the students. That means the boiler might not be
fired up yet, or doors might not be unlocked, so students have to wait outside.
To be upfront, I’m not a fan of the teacher unions, but I have great
admiration and respect for teachers. Most of us can name a teacher or two who
had a profound influence on our lives. But we’ve made teaching a tough
profession. Good teachers love to teach. They respect and honor their
profession. In too many classrooms, though, we’ve taken away their right to
discipline disruptive kids, turning the teachers into babysitters as much as
educators.
And a lot of good teachers aren’t paid enough. It’s an interesting choice
we’ve made as a society. We entrust our kids to teachers for most of the

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